We Are a Christian People

As members of the Church Universal, we join with all true believers in proclaiming the Lordship of Jesus Christ and in embracing the historic Trinitarian creedal statements of Christian faith. We value our Wesleyan-Holiness heritage and believe it to be a way of understanding the faith that is true to Scripture, reason, tradition, and experience.

We Are a Holiness People

God, who is holy, calls us to a life of holiness. We believe that the Holy Spirit seeks to do in us a second work of grace, called by various terms including “entire sanctification” and “baptism with the Holy Spirit”-cleansing us from all sin, renewing us in the image of God, empowering us to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbors as ourselves, and producing in us the character of Christ. Holiness in the life of believers is most clearly understood as Christlikeness.

We Are a Missional People

We are a sent people, responding to the call of Christ and empowered by the Holy Spirit to go into all the world, witnessing to the Lordship of Christ and participating with God in the building of the Church and the extension of His kingdom (Matthew 28:19-20; 2 Corinthians 6:1). Our mission (a) begins in worship, (b) ministers to the world in evangelism and compassion, (c) encourages believers toward Christian maturity through discipleship, and (d) prepares women and men for Christian service through Christian higher education.

What We Value at Hope Road

We value God-inspired worship.

We believe that God alone is worthy of worship and deserving of our praise and adoration. We believe that human beings were created to worship God and that the primary responsibility of the individual and the gathered community of believers (church) is to worship God in spirit and in truth. We believe this worship should engage the whole person: body, emotions, intellect, and will. We also believe that worship is more than a once a week observance and that it requires an everyday lifestyle of obedience.

We believe that since Christ is head of the church it is important to have His presence in the church to give direction and leadership to it. We believe also that God is present with us through the Holy Spirit to energise our worship, regulate our lives and inspire our service. We believe that God’s presence in our lives is the inspiration for our worship.

Therefore, we seek to cultivate the atmosphere in our church and in our lives where God’s presence is sensed and welcomed that He may speak to us, fellowship with us, minister to our needs and instruct us how to live to please Him and to be witnesses for Him.

We value God-honouring prayer.

We believe that prayer is the foundation of the individual Christian life. We believe that a life of prayer is the responsibility of every believer and therefore must be cultivated by personal practice and in corporate settings. We believe that it is essential for a believer to maintain contact with our Father in heaven and that prayer is absolutely vital to the sustenance of our relationship with God.

We also believe that prayer is the lifeblood of the church and that all our planning, activities and ministries should be characterised by prayer. In addition, we are to be involved in intercessory prayer for others who do not know Jesus Christ, for our communities and for God’s justice and peace in the world in which we live.

Therefore, we believe that it is essential that every believer be taught how to pray and to maintain this vital communication with the Father.

We value godly servant leadership.

We believe that God calls and gifts some members of the Body of Christ for leadership in His church and that under such leadership the church will grow. Leaders should have a servant attitude, be obedient to Christ, be growing in their own spiritual lives and who in turn will be examples for the other believers that they lead.

Therefore, we desire and seek to cultivate leaders who possess godly character, wisdom, vision and influence.

We value Growth-orienteddiscipleship.

We believe that discipleship is the process by which Christians grow to spiritual maturity in Christ; that is, believers grow in their relationship with the Lord, become more like Jesus and serve Him in the world.

We believe that the Bible is the inerrant, inspired Word of God and that it is the authoritative rule of faith and practice in the church. We also believe that the Word of God is central to the spiritual life and therefore it is to be the source of all of our preaching and teaching within the church and the guide from which we take instruction for our lives, our church and our ministry.

We believe that the Christian life is not static but dynamic—always growing, and that this process has no termination point in this life.

We believe that discipleship builds Christians of character, competence, commitment and conviction.

Therefore, our aim is to accomplish this through our stress on the application of the Word of God to life as well as through education, encouragement, example and employment in ministry.

We value gift-based lay ministry.

We believe that God has graciously given gifts to all believers and that those gifts are part of our calling from God to minister to each other in the Body of Christ and serve on His behalf in the world.

Therefore, we believe that it is essential that every believer be encouraged and assisted in recognizing, cultivating and utilising their gifts for the glory of God. We recognise also that some of the gifts may or may not be exercised within the church setting.

We value gospel-centred evangelism.

We care about people because people matter to God. We believe that, based on the instruction of Jesus in the Great Commission (Mt.28: 19-20), that evangelisation of the lost is one of the major tasks of the church.

We believe that this process involves every believer and should radiate outward beginning with our homes and our immediate community.

Therefore, we will seek to train every believer in personal evangelism and to build an emphasis on outreach into every major activity of the church.

We value grace-filled fellowship.

We believe that when a person becomes a Christian they immediately become part of a unique fellowship called the family of God. We believe that the church is to be a community of believers who demonstrate genuine care for each other and that loving relationships should characterise the life of the church. We believe that in this atmosphere each person’s uniqueness and personality will be accepted, valued and contribute to shared life of the church. We also believe that unity, not unanimity, is the hallmark of the church.

We believe that it is essential that we possess a grace orientation to life. We believe that God’s grace–His unmerited, undeserved favour–is the primary attitude that we must adopt to life, service and to our relationship with people. We believe that in the same way that God offers unconditional acceptance and forgiveness to us that we should do the same in our relationships with others. We believe that grace provides the environment for loving service to God and to His people, as it is our love and thankfulness to God for the free gift of His grace that will be the basis for all our service.

We value genuine christian living.

We believe that the manner in which we live our lives is to be a reflection of the grace of God that has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness, made us new creations in Christ and has brought us into a new relationship with God. As a result our lives must reflect the holiness of God and glorify Him in every aspect.

As a church, we also believe that if we are to accomplish our work of being witnesses of Christ in the world then there are some attitudes that we must foster that will allow us to enhance the effectiveness of our ministry.

We believe that it is essential that we infuse all that we do with sustained excellence and quality. The standard of the Word of God is that “whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor.10: 31) and “work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men (Col. 3: 23). Therefore, we should seek to maintain a high standard of excellence in the ministries and activities of the church in keeping with the honour and glory of God. As a result, feedback, evaluation and critical review should be encouraged.

We believe that it is essential that we pursue our ministry with creativity and innovation. The world in which we live is constantly changing and as a result we must understand our culture in order to minister to our generation. Therefore, while we believe that the truth of God’s Word never changes, the forms and methods of ministry must be constantly evaluated and changed, if necessary, in order to be effective in reaching people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. While proven techniques should not be discarded on a whim, this may mean changing some of the man-made traditions of the church but we value effectiveness rather than adherence to tradition.

We believe that human beings are stewards of God’s creation and that it is our responsibility to care for our environment. We believe that Christians have a special responsibility to be faithful stewards of all that they possess as gift from the hand of a loving God. We believe that a huge part of our responsibility to God involves our financial obligation to support the ministry of the church through the presentation of our tithes to God and generosity and sacrificial giving of our income. We believe also that stewardship and generosity extends to our time, our gifts and talents, and our energy in the service of Christ. Therefore, we encourage an attitude of gratitude and thankfulness to God for all that He has provided and faithful support of the church.

Follow Us

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Click to enable/disable google webfonts.

Google Map Settings:

Click to enable/disable google maps.

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:

Click to enable/disable video embeds.

Privacy Policy

You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.